Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/16

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NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. m. JAN. 7,

took their names from a man called Hagu- stald ? I could as soon believe that the man gave his name to a mountain. The true name is given by Raine, viz., Hagustalham for Agustalham, i.e. Augustalham.

The surname Hextall may represent the Latin augustalis, as the surname Monk repre- sents the Latin monachus.

There is no evidence that the syllable au in the Latin word Augustus would be repre- sented in Old English by ea. On the con- trary, we have clear evidence that it was not so represented, for Bede spells Augustus and Augustin as Agustus and Agustin. Therefore, when we find Hagustaldensis ecclesia in Bede, it will not do to say that Augustaldensis, which occurs in a chronicle of the twelfth century is a "doctored" form. It is not a " doctored " form, but one of those lucky accidents by which historical truth is some- times preserved.

It is said that I do not produce the slightest proof of my assumed change of meaning from "priest of Augustus" into " monk " or " celibate." A change of meaning would naturally follow from a changed mode of life, and what I suggested was that, in the course of social evolution, the Augustinian canons succeeded the Augustales in the same way that the priests of the Church of England have succeeded the priests of the Church of Rome. The evidence on this point is nega- tive rather than positive. No other way of accounting for the origin of the monastery at Hexham seems possible.

As regards the form Hagustald, ME. STEVENSON knows that prothesis of an initial h^ was not an uncommon phenomenon in Old English. And in a vvord derived from the Latin the final d was more likely in Northern English to have been inserted than omitted.

MR. STEVENSON'S historical objections to my theory are that the Augustales were not priests, or celibates, or a C9rporation, and that Hexham was not a municipium.

It may be that the latest discoveries of modern research have proved that the Augus- tales were not priests. My only guide was the article by Prof. Wayte in the last edition of Smith's ' Diet, of Greek and Roman Anti- quities,' 1890, where the Augustales are defined as "two classes of priests, one at Rome and the other in the municipia," and where books and articles specially dealing with the subject are cited.

I have not said that the Augustales were celibates. But I have somewhere read a statement, founded, I think, on discoveries nade in opening graves, that the canons of Mexham were once married men. Perhaps

some reader of 'N. & Q.' could supply the reference.

As to Augustales not forming a corporation, Prof. Wayte says that their functions remind us "of some of the incidents of municipal dignity in modern times." ME. STEVENSON admits that their " principal functions were economic." So were the functions of old municipal corporations. And so were the functions of the canons of Hexham and other great monasteries.

I am not aware that any direct evidence exists to show whether Hexham was a muni- cipium or not. MR. STEVENSON says it " was certainly not," so the burden of proof rests on him. He will probably admit that it possessed a magnificent basilica built in the typical Roman form, and that Roman remains are occasionally found under the floor of the present church, and elsewhere in the build- ing. He may not be aware that the crypt under the church resembles the crypt under the tribunal of the basilica at Pompeii. Can we believe that there was a magnificent town hall in this place without a town council 1 Some part of the building must have been used by a college of decuriones or by an ordo of Augustales. Now the ordo was the town council, and it is worthy of note that the Augustinian canons, as well as other monastic bodies, constantly speak of themselves in their chronicles as an ordo. I do not, how- ever, lay much stress on this, because the word ordo had other meanings. But when we find monasteries like that at Bury St. Edmunds acting as the town council, or ap- pointing prefects to carry on the municipal business, we can hardly fail to see in them the remains or the modified form of a Roman ordo. It will not do to speak of such and similar things as "purely manorial privi- leges." It has to be snow T n how such " privi- leges" arose. Nobody knows better than MR. STEVENSON that documents which pur- port to be foundation charters of monasteries are often forged. Such a fact raises the presumption that the men who forged the charters either did not know the origin of the institutions to which such charters pur- ported to relate, or, if they did know, wished to conceal or disguise that origin. They had no title deeds to show, so they made some in the hope that posterity would take them as genuine. The existence of such forgeries should open our eyes to the probability, if not to the certainty, that the chronicles of the period abound with fiction.

S. O. ADDY.